Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases: Instructions to Authors

General Information

Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases publishes original research papers, short communications, mini-reviews, letters to editor, and clinical-case studies covering the following topics:

1. Ticks: biosystematics/taxonomy, morphology, evolution, ecology, physiology/biochemistry, behaviour, molecular biology, genomics/proteomics, and control
2. Ecology/ecoepidemiology of tick-borne diseases: vector ticks and reservoir hosts, the mechanisms and processes determining their abundance and distribution, the occurrence and prevalence of pathogens in tick and tick-host populations, tick-host-pathogen interactions at the ecological level and their dependence upon environmental factors, natural focality, and risk assessments of exposure to ticks and the occurrence of tick-borne diseases
3. Tick-borne pathogens: viruses, bacteria and parasites, their biology in ticks and vertebrates, pathogen-tick and pathogen-host interactions on the molecular and cellular levels, transmission, coinfection, genomics/proteomics, and biosystematics/taxonomy
4. Tick-borne diseases in domestic animals and wildlife: epidemiology, diagnosis, immunology, treatment, vaccination, control/management, and economics
5. Tick-borne human diseases: epidemiology, diagnosis, immunology, treatment, vaccination, socioeconomics, and public health

In addition, methodological papers on all these areas will be published as well as timely reviews on vectors and vector-borne diseases in which tick biology or tick-borne diseases are addressed.

Submissions

All manuscripts must be written in clear and grammatically correct English, should be submitted double-spaced and leave ample margins on both sides, top and bottom. The text of the manuscript must be provided in Microsoft Word format. Microsoft Word 2007 documents can currently not be accepted. Please use Word's "Save As" option to save your document as an older (.doc) file type. Submit illustration files separately from text files. Files for full colour images must be in a CMYK colour space. All illustration files should be in TIFF or EPS formats. Journal quality reproduction will require greyscale and colour files at resolutions yielding approximately 300 dpi. Bitmapped line art should be submitted at resolutions yielding 600–1200 dpi. For detailed information on artwork instructions, please refer to http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

Any comments for the editor, e.g., suggestions for up to two competent reviewers (including their e-mail addresses), can be submitted via the respective “Comments to the Editor” text field during online submission or by sending a cover letter via e-mail. Manuscripts should be submitted to the Editorial Office in either one of the following ways:

Online submission (preferred)

http://ees.elsevier.com/ttbdis

Submission via e-mail

jochen.suess[at]fli.bund.de

There are no submission fees or page charges.

Manuscripts are accepted for review on the understanding that the same work has not been published, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that its submission for publication has been approved by all of the authors and by the appropriate authority at the institution where the work was carried out. Authors must verify the wording of any cited personal communication with the persons who supplied the information and obtain approval for the use of their names in connection with the quoted information or for the citation of unpublished work.

Organisation of manuscripts

1. Length: Illustrations and tables should be kept to the minimum necessary for understanding of the article. Mini-reviews should be no longer than 12 typewritten pages (DIN A4) excluding figures, tables, and references.
2. Form: The first page should contain the title of the article, all authors’ first names (one first name of each author in full spelling) and surnames, affiliations as well as name and postal address, phone, fax, and e-mail of the corresponding author.
   
   The manuscript (excluding mini-reviews!) should be organized as follows: Abstract (max. 300 words), Keywords (5–6), Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References, Legends to illustrations. Mini-reviews should be organized as follows: Summary (max. 300 words), Keywords (5–6), Introduction, Main chapters (headline for every chapter), Conclusions, Acknowledgements, References, Legends to illustrations, Tables.
   
   Special note for short communications and clinical-case studies: Maximal length is 6 pages including references, in addition one table and one figure (alternatively two figures or two tables).
   
   Do not capitalize title, authors’ names, or any headings. Headings and subheadings should be printed in bold. Italics should be used only for names of species, symbols or variables, and genes, not for Latin expressions like in situ, in vivo, et al. etc. Do use only SI units. Taxonomic affiliation (family name) plus authority should be given at first mention of a species in the text, but not in the title.
3. Abbreviations must be kept to the minimum and should be explained in full spelling in parentheses when used for the first time.
4. Footnotes must be avoided.
5. Illustrations: Legends should be self-explanatory. The maximum type area is 18.3 cm width and 24.2 cm height. Figures should be designed to fit either one-column size (8.8 cm) or two-columns size (18.3 cm) in width. Figures must be ready for reproduction with clear lettering in suitable size. Colour figures can be printed only if part of the costs are covered by the author (250 EUR for one colour plate, and 200 EUR for every following). Authors, who agreed to pay the production costs for figures to be published in colour will automatically receive 50 additional free offprints.
   
   In exceptional cases colour figure fees may be waived at the editor’s discretion.
6. New nucleotide or amino acid sequences to be published must be deposited at a standard data base (e.g. GenBank or others) and the accession number must be mentioned in the text.
7. References should be quoted in the text by author’s name and by year. If there is more than one article by the same author(s) per year use a and b after the year of publication. For two authors, both should be named (Smith and Miller, 1999); for more than two authors, use first author’s name followed by et al.
   
   The list of references should be given in alphabetical order with the names of all authors for each reference. References to unpublished data, manuscripts in preparation, manuscripts submitted, or personal communications should be made parenthetically in the text and not included in the list of references. Here, examples for the style to be used:
   
   Zaharik, M.L., Gruenheid, S., Perrin, A.J., Finlay, B.B., 2002. Delivery of dangerous goods: Type III secretion in enteric pathogens. Int. J. Med. Microbiol. 291, 593–603.
   
   Strunk Jr., W., White, E.B., 1979. The Elements of Style, third ed. Macmillan, New York. Mettam, G.R., Adams, L.B.,
   
   1999. How to prepare an electronic version of your article. In: Jones, B.S., Smith, R.Z. (Eds.), Introduction to the Electronic Age. E-Publishing Inc., New York, pp. 281–304.

Copyright

Once a paper is accepted, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright, see http://www.elsevier.com/authorsrights). A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided after acceptance. If material from other copyrighted works is included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article.

Funding body agreements and policies

Elsevier has established agreements and developed policies to allow authors who publish in Elsevier journals to comply with potential manuscript archiving requirements as specified as conditions of their grant awards. To learn more about existing agreements and policies please visit http://www.elsevier.com/fundingbodies.

Proofs

Proofs will be sent to the author. To avoid delay in publication, proofs should be returned promptly. No alterations should be made other than those needed to correct typographical errors. Costs for extensive additional alterations will be charged to the authors, and the paper may be sent to the Editor-in-Chief for approval.

Reprints

The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail or, alternatively, 25 free paper offprints. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Additional paper offprints can be ordered by the authors. An order form with prices will be sent to the corresponding author.